SHAME VAKS

SHAME VAKS (April 20, 1912-July 1, 1975)

            He was born in Rodem (Radom), Poland.  He studied in religious elementary school.  He graduated from the Radom high school Ḥoveve Daat (Lovers of the faith) in 1929, later studying in Warsaw University.  He survived ghetto and concentration camp.  In a survivors’ camp in Stuttgart, he edited the publication Af der fray (In freedom), 66 pp.  In 1948 he moved to Los Angeles.  Among his books: Mayn troyer lid (Grief is my song) (Los Angeles, 1968), 104 pp., mostly in Yiddish with an “Author’s note” in English and one poem in Polish.  He died in Huntington Beach, California.

Berl Kagan, comp., Leksikon fun yidish-shraybers (Biographical dictionary of Yiddish writers) (New York, 1986), col. 232.